Haiti: MSF outraged by attack on its ambulance by law enforcement and execution of patients

On November 11, an MSF ambulance transporting three young people with gunshot wounds was stopped by Haitian police about one hundred meters from the MSF hospital in the Drouillard area of Port-au-Prince and was forced to proceed with a transfer to a public hospital. After an attempt to arrest the patients and firing shots in the air, the police escorted the ambulance to Hôpital La Paix. Once there, law enforcement officers and members of a self-defence group surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tyres, and tear-gassed MSF personnel inside the vehicle to force them out. They then took the wounded patients a short distance away, outside the hospital grounds, where at least two of them were executed.

The MSF personnel in the ambulance were violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death and held against their will for more than four hours before being allowed to leave. The MSF ambulance was damaged and left unable to drive, so the team departed in a second vehicle.

“This act is a shocking display of violence, both for the patients and for MSF medical personnel, and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian population, which is in dire need,” said Christophe Garnier, Head of Mission. “Our teams and our patients need a minimum level of safety to continue providing medical care.”

MSF is a humanitarian organisation serving the Haitian population, addressing medical needs in primary healthcare, trauma care, and support for survivors of sexual violence. We call on the authorities and all stakeholders to uphold the right to access medical care without discrimination or hindrance and to ensure the protection of patients, as well as respect for medical personnel and healthcare facilities in the face of increasing violence.